Bitwala Announces a New Banking Service For Seamless Crypto-Fiat Transactions
On Monday, Feb 26, Bitwala - a blockchain-based payment service provider announced that it will soon be launching a new online banking service that enables “a seamless transition between the crypto and fiat worlds.” The company stated that the new accounts will blend all the features of traditional banking along with the crypto-economy. Further giving a tentative timeline of launch, Bitwala said: “We aim to introduce the new Bitwala accounts to the world within the next few months.”
Bitwala currently has a presence in over 200 countries with 5700 customers. The company said that interested people can pre-register for this new service. It added that “In the next few months, we will be building a full-fledged German bank account that will come with a German IBAN, BIC along with a real debit card from Mastercard…Your funds up to €100,000 will be guaranteed.”
The company has also stated that all the accounts under the new banking service will be fully regulated by Baffin - the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority of Germany. After receiving the approval from Bafin, the deposit guarantee scheme of German banks will guarantee customers funds of up to €100,000 (~USD$123,000).
Bitwala explained that the customers of the new banking service will be easily able to purchase and sell cryptocurrencies and also manage their daily expenses by setting up the debit cards. It claims that its “accounts will be the perfect solution for those seeking secure and crypto-friendly banking services.”
All the Bitwala accounts will come with a debit card that is directly linked to customer’s accounts. The company said that “We will be issuing a contactless debit card, enabling you to spend your funds instantly in shops, online and at any ATM.” It further detailed this by saying that the customer’s balances “will be immediately available” on their Bitwala debit cards. Furthermore, the company says that debit cards will also “have much lower fees and higher spending limits,” in comparison to the prepaid cards which the company offered earlier.
Earlier, Bitwala offered prepaid card services that were issued by Wavecrest Holdings Limited and offered denominations in EUR. However, earlier this year on Jan. 5, Bitwala announced that its prepaid cards were disabled following the directions from Visa. The company wrote: “Our Bitwala Card issuer Wavecrest Holdings Ltd received direction from Visa Europe to immediately suspend all Bitwala cards effective immediately.”
Visa said that it had to remove Wavecrest from its network as it violated the company’s operating regulations, and thus had asked Wavecrest to discontinue services for all Visa products, some of which were linked to the cryptocurrency wallets.